Friday, December 6, 2013

"Rare openness: ICRC President warns about Israeli policies"

“Israel’s
policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have come under unusually
hard-hitting attack by the President of the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, for their challenge to international law.

In
an article in the latest edition of the International Review of the Red Cross,
Maurer explains this move away from the ICRC’s normal behind-the-scenes
diplomacy by the fact that “the ICRC has been unable to engage in any
meaningful dialogue with the Israeli government” on such key issues as the
annexation of East Jerusalem, the routing of the barrier separating the West
Bank and Israel, and the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The organisation believes all of these are violations of international
humanitarian law, IHL.”